(CNN) -- At least five people were killed and 52 others were wounded in a car bombing north of Baghdad on Friday afternoon, police told CNN.

Police said the car bomb was parked outside the house of a Salaheddin provincial council member in a residential area in the town of Tuz Khurmato, a disputed territory 90 kilometers southwest of Kirkuk between the central government in Baghdad and the Kurdistan Regional Government in the north.

The official escaped unharmed, but some of his family members were wounded in the attack, according to police.

Overall violence in Iraq has dropped drastically over the past two years, compared with the height of the sectarian war in 2006 and 2007, but sporadic attacks continue.

The attack comes as Iraq is facing political uncertainty three months after the country's national elections. The country has yet to form a government, a process described by Western officials as lagging and expected to take months.

Officials have warned of militant groups taking advantage of the power vacuum and carrying out more attacks.